HP boss places bets on 1,000 staff at UK race track

Hewlett-Packard boss Mark Hurd has spent the morning at Ascot’s racing course with 1,000 hand-picked UK employees mulling the future of the company, after announcing earlier this month that 3,378 jobs are off to the knacker's yard.

According to the union Unite, EDS staff will account for up to 90 per cent of UK workers to be handed their P45s.

HP bought EDS in August this year, and since then it has confirmed that nearly 25,000 - more than seven per cent - of its worldwide workforce would be axed over the next two years.

Unite has repeatedly lambasted HP for failing to consult the union on the job cuts This morning the union sent out a man in a van to circle the roads outside the racing course and demand that Hurd provides full consultation, avoids compulsory redundancies and to redeploy and re-skill staff remaining at HP.

"We will be taking our message to Mark Hurd tomorrow to remind him that the decisions he makes in the boardroom have human consequences for people's lives and livelihoods," said Unite national officer Peter Skyte in a statement yesterday. "HP is a wealthy company with very healthy finances. We are seeing the workforce pay the price for the recent takeover of EDS."

The Register asked HP about Hurd’s UK visit to the gee gees this morning.

It gave us this canned statement: "HP does not comment on union activity and for obvious reasons, HP does not comment on the whereabouts of the CEO Mark Hurd." ®